A Marble Woman: Unknown Thrillers of Louisa May Alcott

by Louisa May Alcott, Madeleine B. Stern

A collection of short thrillers that were originally published under a pseudonym offers insight into Alcott's diversity as a writer and includes the title story about an orphan's coming of age in a sinister house. Reprint.

Genres: Short Stories, Classics, Fiction, Gothic

279 pages, Paperback

First published January 1, 1865

About the author

Louisa May Alcott was an American novelist, short story writer, and poet best known for writing the novel Little Women (1868) and its sequels Good Wives (1869), Little Men (1871) and Jo's Boys (1886). Raised in New England by her transcendentalist parents, Abigail May Alcott and Amos Bronson Alcott, she grew up among many well-known intellectuals of the day, including Margaret Fuller, Ralph Waldo Emerson, Nathaniel Hawthorne, Henry David Thoreau, and Henry Wadsworth Longfellow.
Alcott's family suffered from financial difficulties, and while she worked to help support the family from an early age, she also sought an outlet in writing. She began to receive critical success for her writing in the 1860s. Early in her career, she sometimes used pen names such as A.M. Barnard, under which she wrote lurid short stories and sensation novels for adults that focused on passion and revenge.
Published in 1868, Little Women is set in the Alcott family home, Orchard House, in Concord, Massachusetts, and is loosely based on Alcott's childhood experiences with her three sisters, Abigail May Alcott Nieriker, Elizabeth Sewall Alcott, and Anna Bronson Alcott Pratt. The novel was well-received at the time and is still popular today among both children and adults. It has been adapted for stage plays, films, and television many times.
Alcott was an abolitionist and a feminist and remained unmarried throughout her life. She also spent her life active in reform movements such as temperance and women's suffrage. She died from a stroke in Boston on March 6, 1888, just two days after her father's death.

Reviews

[Laura · Rating 3 out of 5]

From BBC Radio 4 Extra:
Recently orphaned Cecilia Stein turns up at the door of a large gothic mansion, home to genius sculptor Bazil Yorke. Jilted by the child's mother many years ago, Yorke decides to use the daughter to punish the sins of the mother.

Sexual repression, opium addiction and love collide in Louisa May Alcott's Gothic tour de force - dramatised by Lavinia Murray.

Starring Bill Paterson as Bazil Yorke, Amanda Root as Cecil Stein, John McArdle as Germain, Charles De'Ath as Alfred, Sarah Parkes as Mrs Norton, Geoffrey Banks as Anthony, Becky Simpson as Young Cecil and Robert Pollard as Young Alfred.

Producer: Pauline Harris

First broadcast on BBC Radio 4 in 2000.

https://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/b09s...

[Alex Roma · Rating 4 out of 5]

There are a lot of reviews of these stories (not on goodreads but in general) that will basically say "This will TOTALLY CHANGE how you view Louisa May Alcott!" or "It's so different from Little Women!" But really, I wasn't much surprised by this book. Yes, Little Women is a warmer story and it's kind of a sapfest (I say that with love, because it's one of my favorite books and Jo March is forever one of my favorite characters), but IN Little Women, it talks about the thrillers that Jo wrote to get by when she was starting out as an author. Alcott confirmed multiple times that Jo is basically a fictionalized version of herself. These stories, then, are basically those thrillers that Jo wrote. You can imagine it so clearly, Jo up at three in the morning writing the scene of Cecil and Germain sailing through a storm, or Sybil attempting to break out of an insane asylum.

However, if you do have some gentle, moral and somewhat prudish mental image of Louisa May Alcott then I would definitely recommend this book to shake you out of that. There are dark themes throughout every story: manipulation, mental illness, drug use (and not subtext. The premise of A Perilous Play is literally that a bunch of twenty-somethings decide to get high to stave off the boredom, so clearly nothing's changed xD), etc. They're all artfully written, though, and interesting, yes, even thrilling reads, if the endings are sometimes a bit too pleasant for the path taken through most of the story. And even if you DON'T idealize Alcott but want to read something of hers that's not about the March family, this would be my first suggestion.

[Patty_pat · Rating 3 out of 5]

Un racconto che servì a far sopravvivere la scrittrice. Non mi ha convinto, in alcuni punti mi ha ricordato le atmosfere di “Rebecca” della Du Maurier. Per molti sarà un pregio, ma io non ho apprezzato nemmeno quello! Tra l'altro questo libro è precedente di parecchi decenni. In ogni caso la trama è presto detta: un'orfana, accolta in casa di un misantropo, profondamente amico della defunta madre, cresce nella totale devozione verso quest'uomo che la vuole fredda come il marmo. E' una storia di sentimenti non detti, di verità nascoste di bufere e tempeste durante le quali si scopre tutto, come nei migliori romanzi gotici. Gli elementi ci sono tutti, ma non mi ha attratto. Peccato. Tre stelline per l'impegno e la fantasia.

[Elisewin · Rating 3 out of 5]

Piaciuto. Ma d'altronde mi era piaciuto il Pigmalione e questa storia lo ricorda tantissimo.
Non mi aspettavo questo tipo di narrazione perché della Alcott ho letto solo Piccole donne, che sento molto lontano da questo racconto. Sicuramente apprezzabile l'intreccio e il mistero che avvolge alcuni personaggi.

[Monica. A · Rating 5 out of 5]

Questo classico della Alcott, poco noto, è un esperimento ben riuscito di thriller con una spruzzata di gotico. Fa parte di 33 racconti pubblicati con uno pseudonimo e attribuiti all'autrice solo a partire dal 1975. Sarebbe interessante leggere anche gli altri.
La donna di marmo è la storia misteriosa di una bambina che, rimasta orfana, si vede costretta ad accettare come tutore un uomo sconosciuto scelto dalla madre morente.  Amante o padre della bambina?  Un uomo schivo, uno scultore che nasconde un uomo inquietante che terrorizza l'infanzia della bambina.  Molti sono i misteri che rimangono tali fino alla fine.  La donna di marmo è lei, Cecil, che per imposizione del tutore, deve ispirarsi a Psiche e diventare fredda e irraggiungibile rinunciando ai sentimenti per l'arte.
Classica storia d'amore, vendetta e gelosia che non ha nulla di scontato e che si legge tutta d'un fiato.
Affronta anche temi cari al gotico, dimore poco accoglienti, abuso di laudano, relazioni oscure, balli in maschera con scambi di persona...
Un peccato per il finale frettoloso, se sviluppata meglio la storia, poteva essere un gran bel romanzo.

[chiara · Rating 3 out of 5]

3.5 *

[Gsus · Rating 2 out of 5]

Started reading this as Typhoon Odette was wreaking Havoc. It was nice. Not the typhoon. The book. I liked the first chapter of the first story. But then it got confusing honestly. Maybe because I read the remaining chapters 2 days after (because I was reading a diff book) What I got from this experience is to stick to one if I can. But then, reading a different book is THE cure to a reading slump, I've also figured. Anyway, so then I lowkey forgot the names. It also did not help that the first story had a lot of "plots and counterplots" gettit--mehehe. It really was meant to shock and confuse you, take you on a whirlwind. It did however kind of tied together by the end, I feel like I understood most of it. But I'm not sure and I'm not willing to go back and understand it. The next story is titled 'A Marble Woman'. I like this one. I like the story. I feel like by this point I was starting to get used to the writing and sentence structures. I also feel like I could understand it because the story is not meant to confuse/ surprise you, only to gross u out with pedophilia ig BAHAHAHA. The last story is about drug experimentation, the title is called Perilous Play. Louisa May Alcott has a way with words. She has that distinct writing. I like the subtle homages to human liberty and will and her portrayal of the sex. Hmmm i don't know if i'm getting my thought across but i can't seem to explain it right but i guess that's all I have to say. This book isn't as hard to read as other classics and old english literature, but it takes some getting used to. Feels foreign, like it's another language you have to translate in your brain. I guess maybe that's why I never read a lot of classics. I like fast reading, but this one-- I cannot or else I won't understand that much. I think gothic books are not for me. I've attempted reading "We have always lived in a castle" but I never get to finish at least a chapter. I once read Edgar Allan Poe just to try-- suffice it to say, I did not enjoy it as much and I can't even remember the title or what the short book was about. I guess I do not like working for things BAHHAA I want it easy BAHAHHA . A poor character trait really. But anyway, to end, the plot and storylines of the book were good. I fairly enjoyed myself. I'll rank the stories from most to least liked:
1. A Marble Woman
2. A Whisper in the Dark
3. The Skeleton in the Closet
4. Perilous Play
5. Plots and Counterplots

[Carfig · Rating 3 out of 5]

I actually only read two stories because we have all the others in a hardbound book that will be easier to read. So only a bit over 120 pages for the title story and "The Skeleton in the Closet." Not too wild about the Skeleton, but the title piece was more interesting until Cecil (short for Cecilia) was found to be taking opium. Odd twist, but she was rather unhappy, married to the man who took her in as a ward for a friend and she was told it was to be a marriage in name only, no love, but just to make things look okay to the prying public.

[Kim · Rating 4 out of 5]

A beautiful collection of short stories. The stories we're delightful to read, different than her other books but with the same writing style. I was son engrossed with the book that I stayed up past my bedtime. It's always fascinating to see an author write something more than what they are known for. I'm happy to have stumbled upon this book at a used bookstore.

[Mark · Rating 5 out of 5]

Every story is a winner, showing superb mastery of detail, character, and mystery. No mystery is left to doubt, though some might remain to be pondered. The action is engaging. Sadly, the authoress was usually so Insecure that anonymity outweighed self ..

[Eve · Rating 4 out of 5]

Fascinating to read early Alcott. The facility for language is already there, but the maturity of theme and sophistication of structure isn't

[Grace]

Extremely Freudian.

[Jessica · Rating 5 out of 5]

Wonderful, I'm a huge fan of Alcott, everything she wrote is fantastic in my opinion

I grew up reading her work and she is always a comfort author for me

[Kate K. F. · Rating 3 out of 5]

Louisa May Alcott is best known for the Little Women books but at one point she was a writer who had to pay the bills. To do that she wrote thrillers with Gothic themes and exotic European settings. In this, the second collection of her unknown works, her stories are reads reminiscent of Poe and Conan Doyle with touches of the supernatural and human frailty. The introduction is the true find of this collection as Madeline Stern writes about how Alcott put her own writing struggles into the role of Jo and reflected some of the stories she wrote for serials and dime novels in Jo's works. A worthwhile read for any lover of Louisa May Alcott who wishes to read another side of her.

[Kristi · Rating 5 out of 5]

The title story, involves an artist keeps his young ward (the daughter of his former love) imprisoned within his mansion, as he crafts an angelic likeness of her in his tower studio. Celica must suppress all passion and feeling with opium, as her wayward desire for love and affection arouses his jealousy. The story has pseudo-incestuous undertones, in the sensual love between a guardian and his ward. This is one of the sensational stories collected in this volume, which were originally published by Alcott in newspapers, using a pseudonym. Mysterious, suspenseful, and great fun to read!

[Laura · Rating 4 out of 5]

A great collection of thrillers. Very different from "Little Women"!

[Valine · Rating 5 out of 5]

I have had this book for years and read it multiple times. Great book of short stories/thrillers.

[Meme · Rating 4 out of 5]

Louisa May's stories for grownups written to help support her family. Very Bronte-esque. Fun and fascinating to read.

[Ariel · Rating 4 out of 5]

I love stories that can catch me up in some way and I certainly became enmeshed in Alcott's blood and thunder stories. I'm very glad to have done so.

[May · Rating 3 out of 5]

An entirely different side of Louisa May Alcott. It was interesting to see a devious quality in her writing.

[Julieb · Rating 4 out of 5]

Gotta love those 19th century mysteries without the gratuitous hard-to-take violence in modern "thrillers".